NOTES ON BRIDELIA 189 



Wallich) iii. 735 (1832); Muell. Arg. in DC. Prodr. xv. ii. 500 

 (1866); Beddome, For. Manual, 202 (1873) ; Brandis, For. Fl. 202 

 (1873) ; Gamble, Man. Ind. Timb. 357 (1881). The distribution is 

 given as " Along the foot-hills of the himalaya, ascending to 3000 ft. 

 and to 6000 ft. in Sikkim, from the Panjab to Bhotan. Khasia Mts., 

 alt. 2-4000 ft. Behar, on Parasnath, J. D. Hooker. Coromandel 

 (Roxburgh)." 



An examination of the material and a comparison with the 

 descriptions and figures in the works cited, together with a considera- 

 tion of the distribution, has shown that two or more species are here 

 included ; indeed, Hooker himself says : " There are two forms, one 

 with leaves very shining above and narrowed base, nerves 8-12 pair 

 slender, the other has leaves more like retusa, more oblong, nerves 

 10-15 pair stronger." 



Roxburgh (Cor. PI. 1. c.) has a full description and a plate of 

 Cluytia montana. He depicts a branch of a tree or shrub with leaves, 

 l'5-2 - 5" long, with only 7-8 sec. nerves each side, turning up inside 

 of, but neither branching nor uniting with the marginal nerve. The 

 flowers are few in a cluster, the bracts inconspicuous, petals orbicular 

 and clawed in both sexes, and the female disc is tubular, with a 

 crenulate margin, closely investing the ovary but leaving its apex 

 free. His plant is a native of the Peninsula and has a Telinga name. 

 There is no specimen bearing Roxburgh's ticket at Kew, the British 

 Museum, or at the Sibpur Herbarium, nor any known to me which 

 can be said exactly to match the plate quoted or the original drawing 

 from which the plate was made. 



Willdenow's only reference is to Cli/j/tia montana Roxb. 



II. Bridelia verrucosa, sp. nov. 



Wallich's No. 7879 in the Wallichian herbarium includes no plant 

 referable in my opinion to Roxburgh's Cluytia montana: the only 

 part which here concerns us is (d), marked " Helaundah, 13th Deer. 

 1820 " from Nepal. This is obviously the part referred to in Fl. Br. 

 Ind. and is the same species as Hooker's plant collected on Parasnath ; 

 these specimens belong to the second of the two forms referred to in 

 his note cited above. The plant is one very familiar to me in its 

 natural state over a large part of its known distribution. It is native 

 of the lower Himalaya, abundant in the higher Siwaliks, and also 

 occurs in the ravines of the mountains of Chota Nagpur (in which 

 tract Parasnath also is situated) ; but there is no evidence that it 

 occurs in the Peninsula proper. The branches are always markedly 

 pustulate or verrucose, a character which Roxburgh would assuredlv 

 have remarked had it occurred in his plant. The leaves are very much 

 larger, usually 4-6" long on the flowering branches and the lower ones 

 attain 8" by 4 - 5". There are 10-16 strong secondary nerves on each 

 side, which run without branching into the marginal nerve. The 

 flowers are in dense clusters on axillary tubercles densely covered with 

 conspicuous broad scarious bracts ; the female flowers have a villous 

 or pubescent broad-based calyx-tube longer relatively to the sepals 

 than in C. montana. The female disc loosely but completely invests 



